McClaren - Blame game pointless

Former England manager calls for major changes

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 17th July 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

McClaren - Blame game pointless

McClaren: Driven out

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Steve McClaren believes England must make changes at grass roots level if they are to become competitive.

A woeful showing at this summer's World Cup in South Africa has once again highlighted the deficiencies of the national side.

Many have been quick to the point the finger at the players and manager Fabio Capello, with a number of dismal showings deemed unacceptable.

However, McClaren, who endured a torrid time as England coach prior to Capello's appointment, believes the Three Lions' problems lie much deeper.

He believes England have failed to address the issues which continue to undermine performances at the very top of the game and fears the abject failure will continue until the blame game is brought to an end.

"Myself and Sven (Goran Eriksson) were vilified. I built up a good reputation and, unfortunately, it was a case of how a reputation could be destroyed in one night," McClaren, who has joined Wolfsburg after a successful stint with FC Twente, told the Daily Mirror.

Inquest

"Before that it was (Kevin) Keegan, Glenn Hoddle and Graham Taylor. There have always been many England managers who keep getting ridiculed.

"I think it's about time we started to broaden the inquest, not just focusing on one man. We say: 'He's the head, it's his fault, chop his head off'.

"Let's start looking at the bigger picture now. In my experience, in Holland and now coming to Germany, they've gone through similar experiences where they failed and they've looked not just from the top but from the grass roots and made changes.

"Let's look at other things. Why can't we develop players like the Dutch, the Germans, the Spanish?

"I do see the difference travelling around Europe... working in Holland, working in Germany. They took it back to grass roots level. They had the talent and they developed the coaches first so they developed the talent properly."

Comments (6)

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Peter Mcguckin says...

The main reason the england team fall short of expectations is pressure from the media. They hype the team up after a good win, then condemn them after a loss. This does no good to the confidence of the players, the freedom of the manager or the the support of our fans.

Posted 13:21 17th July 2010

Ben Wilson (Manchester United fan) says...

Out of all the managers mentioned, he is the only manager to have any real success after being England coach. I do think he has a point with the grass roots though even if he was a rubbish England manager. All fairness to him he was good at bringing through good youth players through. Good club manager never a international manager!!

Posted 13:15 17th July 2010

Richard Williams says...

McClaren may not be everyone's cup of tea, but to deny what he is saying is to bury our heads firmly in the sand - as usual. The general concensus is that we must re-structure our game from the bottom up. We must prune the Premiership of foreign journeymen and reduce the amount of games our top footballers are asked to play. Footballers are like dogs with food. No matter how much food we give them, they will always want more - never enough. Players will bounce to the next game rubbing their hands in glee, until they get on the pitch and find they are running on empty. Directors are just happy to get bums on seats, and they don't care about fatigue. It makes me nervous to hear that the FA have a plan to bring in a 'chairman' of football, someone who 'has an affinity with the game'. Why not just get a football professional ? Also, while banging my drum, I dont think Cappello has performed like the genius he is supposed to be. Genius would have taken Wilshere and Johnson to the World Cup and played them, would have left SWP and Heskey at home. Genius would have played James from the start, and Gerrard in a forward position behind Rooney, who was under too much pressure to play his game. But the real problems are the ones highlighted by McClaren.

Posted 13:12 17th July 2010

Paul Dewberry (Arsenal fan) says...

Whilst I cannot listen to the man with that stupid English/Dutch interview language, i have to concede that we do need to stop blaming the manager at all times, (McClaren excluded). With the new national academy on the horizon hopefully we can start to climb the FIFA rankings once more. Pesonally i blame the players at the world cup, they were woeful, truly woeful. We do have young players coming through, and whilst alot of foreigners have come over to pick up a pay packet, if we had more decent young players they would get games, cream always rises to the top!!

Posted 12:50 17th July 2010

Kevin Connoe says...

After McClaren's total failure as England Manager - he alone, of all England mangers - plucked defeat from the jaws of victory, he has no right to comment on England at any level. He should be grateful to the English FA because he bought a villa in the West Indies with his pay-off, I believe. Calling Steve McClaren an International Manager contrevenes the Trades Description Act

Posted 12:14 17th July 2010

Matt Watson (Liverpool fan) says...

I'm sorry Steve, but I don't listen to Managers who don't qualify for tournaments.

Posted 11:59 17th July 2010
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